The Inbox: October 12, 2012

Good news, everyone! With the NFL season in full swing -- and with an estimated 25-30 million of us playing fantasy football -- you can breathe a sigh of relief knowing that the New Hampshire Attorney General has declined to prosecute a former deputy county attorney who used his work email to talk about fantasy football. A member of Americans for Progress had alleged that the emails constituted illegal gambling. Now, who wants to trade me for a starting running back?

Multiple sources have discussed the potential conflicts of interest alleged against David Kotz, the former Inspector General of the SEC who, among other things, investigated Bernie Madoff's Ponzi scheme. The highest profile allegation is that Kotz had an "inappropriate relationship" -- the Huffington Post calls the e-mail exchange "flirtatious" -- with an SEC employee while Kotz's office was conducting oversight on a program on which that employee worked.

Relatedly, a Texas appeals court upheld the firing of a paramedic who had frustratedly posted to her personal Facebook page that she "wanted to slap" an uncooperative patient. The paramedic had argued that her employer invaded her privacy and tortiously intruded upon her seclusion; the trial court granted summary judgment for lack of evidence and the appellate court affirmed.

Suits by (fake) suits? Sony sued its former pitchman, actor Jerry Lambert, who appeared in a series of commercials on behalf of Sony's Playstation 3 console as fake executive Kevin Butler (with titles such as "Vice President of Add More Awesome," "Vice President of Epic Gaming for All," "Vice President of Bringin' It in 3D," and nearly four dozen others). Lambert later appeared in a Bridgestone tires ad playing a Nintendo Wii, prompting Sony to sue, alleging that Lambert was unfairly using its "Kevin Butler" intellectual property. Those of us old enough to remember Larry "Bud" Melman's appearances on the old David Letterman show may recall that Letterman faced a similar issue when he tried to move that character (played by actor Calvert DeForest) to his new show on CBS. (Letterman's workaround was to refer to DeForest as "That Guy" and "Kenny the Gardener.")